One of the great joys of these medium calibers is that the heavier bullets do NOT have to be pushed to anywhere like max speed for them to be extremely effective on game. In the Whelen, a 250 gr bullet at 2200-2300 fps is reliably effective on most game and.....recoil is minimized. You can push that same bullet up to 2600+fps for a little flatter trajectory, noticeably more recoil, and effective for anything on this continent.
The solution to taming the recoil is a bug squishy recoil pad like the Rem R3 or the Limbsaver. Continues to amaze me with their effectiveness.
My go to load for my Whelens is a 250 gr Partition loaded to a bit less than 2500fps. Powder is almost irrelevant, but Varget has been good to me. As has 8208, 4064, TAC, BallC2, 3031, etc etc.
A joy to the Whelen is their total lack of being finicky. You will have to work to find a combination it doesn't like.
